My V2 came in yesterday. One word that describes the new Rune, BURLY with a capital B. This is a hucker's AM bike. If you think the frame is too heavy, the Spitfire seems like the way to go without sacrificing that much performance.

I love the industrial look of the frame in person, but I feel like the V2 is so much more bike than the V1- and I'm stuck pondering if the Spitfire may be a better fit for the type riding I typically do.

Build have to wait, because I ordered a Tune Bubi Headset but it is ZS55, not ZS56 as the Rune so I have to buy another one.

I'll update as soon as it is builded.

That is interesting that you could get the 142-12, my bike shop called trident and were told they were not available yet and I would have to order them later. Hopefully at a discount since they were not available when I first ordered.

Banshee gave me the option to have the frame directly shipped to me for like $140. I opted to wait for it to get sorted at Trident. I'm guessing a few of these folks had the frames shipped straight to them- I'm guessing it wouldn't make sense to send it from Asia to N. America, and back across the world to Europe. I'm also in Northern California, which isn't that far from BC.

YEah I have been on the list forever. No big deal since I don't have all the parts yet anyways. But seeing all the pics of the frame popping up in north America isn't helping my anticipation! Yeah, yeah

Short term review.

Hey all,

I've been riding the V2 for about a month now so I figured I'd post a review. A quick preamble about me first just so you know where I'm coming from.

Me

I'm 36, been riding mountain bikes in anger since I was 15, my favourite kind of riding has always been downhill but I'm loving all day rides on long technical, natural trails these days. I've owned everything from 10" travel, 40+lb downhill rigs to BMX bikes and even dabbled in fully rigid weight weenie xc bikes. I've had a love/hate thing going on with the Banshee Rune for the past few years, I love it because of how versatile it is ( I rode mine on everything from the Fort William WC track to local pump tracks and the Mountain of Hell ) and I hated it because of frame wear and those damn bushings.

In the past year or so I've ridden a Solid Mission 9, 2Stage Elite 9, Giant Glory, Giant Reign, Cube Fritz, Trek Remedy, Orange Alpine 160 and all versions of the Rune( Just to give you an idea of what I'm used to riding although I'll be comparing the V2 to the previous versions of the Rune in this review ).

First Impressions

For some reason, I expected that the Rune V2 would be much like the V1.5 but with bearings, that seems pretty dumb in hindsight.

My first impressions of the V2 was that it felt longer and pushed more of the rider's weight over the front wheel than the v1. It didn't feel like it had such a slack head angle and it had lost a bit of the slack downhill bike feel that I liked about the 1.5, I found that I was having a bit of trouble holding a manual over sections that I could nail on the 1.5.

The upside was that it felt better through fast berms and loamy corners, the bike digs in and grips brilliantly. The biggest surprise came when I started going uphill, I expected that there would be an improvement over the previous versions of the Rune but the V2 is in another league altogether.

I can clean technical rocky sections on the V2 where I'd run out of steam or get knocked off line on any other bike. Sitting down and grinding up smooth fire roads doesn't cause any noticeable pedal kickback or bobbing on a 26t granny ring and the power transfer from legs to wheels feels smooth and direct.

Short term review

Over the next few rides, I started to adjust to the new geometry, manualling and getting the front end up became just as easy and controllable as the 1.5. The same goes for jumping too, it's got a nice balanced and natural feel in the air but then so did the old versions.

I took it down a trail that I always use to tweak and dial in suspension, it's got a mile long rock garden with plenty of square edge rocks and a few tricky sections where line choice is critical. Also, there are only a couple of places where you can get pedal strokes in, and it's only slightly downhill so you can't rely on gravity alone to get you through it, you have to keep off the brakes and pump whenever you can.

This is where the penny dropped for me, the new Rune suddenly came alive. The harder you push, the better the bike feels and the faster it goes. The suspension becomes very active and the slack head angle becomes apparent, the way the rear wheel tracks over technical terrain is impressive, it reminds me of how good downhill bikes track over rough terrain when they're properly set up. It's not a numb or disconnected feeling either, there's plenty of feedback to let you know what's going on, preloading and pumping the suspension works exactly as it should and it never feels like your wallowing around in the travel.

As a side note, I loaded up Strava and recorded a few runs down the trail. Turns out I'd beaten all my previous times and was now 9th fastest overall, 1st place is Steve Peat. That was in the wet on a new bike, buzzing!

In my opinion, the V2 outperforms not only the previous versions of the Rune but any other all-mountain bike that I've ridden. I've really tried to be as critical as possible and find faults with this frame, I want to give a balanced review and I understand that being in the "honeymoon" period can bias my opinions but so far I can't find any issues with the V2.

I've ridden it on as many different types of terrain as I can right now in order to see where it's going to let me down but I get more impressed with it every time I ride it, it's not put a foot wrong yet.

If I had one main criticism it would be that the V2 is a pretty serious frame, by this I mean that if you take steady rides then it's not going to feel that much different to any other all mountain bike. Some riders might even say it was a bit boring. The V2 really shines when you ride it hard on technical terrain and that's what separates it from other 6" travel bikes that I've ridden, I haven't felt as though it was out of it's depth or that it was holding me back in any way. Sometimes, pedalling sat down on steep uphill sections with tight switchbacks can make the front end feel light but you can adjust for that. Also, the linkages hold on to mud and dirt but a mudguard will easily prevent that.

Something that I've noticed, and I'd be interested to see whether any other owners think this or whether I'm talking out of my arse, is that the V2 almost feels like two different bikes. Put the seat down, thrash it downhill in the attack position and it feels planted and plush with really active suspension but pedal uphill, sat down with the seat up it feels light with a controlled pedal platform - that leads me onto something else, I don't even bother with the CTD lever anymore, I set it in "Trail" and I haven't needed to use C or D.

If I was going to give any advice to anyone buying the frame it would be to get it with the CC DBAir, the Fox CTD is decent but there's no need for the whole CTD thing with this frame. Get a DBAir, spend time getting it set up properly and you'll be golden.

Summary

So far, I'm really happy with the V2 Rune, I think that it's the ideal enduro and mini DH frame for the UK. I'm excited to get it over to the Alps and I reckon that this is the perfect bike for The Mountain of Hell.

Sometime last year I said this about the Rune V1 "Feels like I found the perfect girlfriend - beautiful, intelligent, loads of fun but when you get down to business, she turns out to be a man. "

Danshee great review, all this great comments on the V2 are making it harder for me to wait two more month to ride. I noticed on the pics that you are using the flip chips up, did you try the other positions?

Danshee great review, all this great comments on the V2 are making it harder for me to wait two more month to ride. I noticed on the pics that you are using the flip chips up, did you try the other positions?

Cheers.

Yeah, I've tried the flip chips in all positions and I'm still playing around with them at the moment, I'm enjoying messing around and seeing how they affect the handling on trails that I know well.

Hey Danshee might I ask what kind of sag you are running on the Fox? Im going to be doing an initial set up tonight and want a good baseline.

Hey Darkslide, I don't actually know.

I used the Fox iRD iPhone app to set up the shock and it feels pretty good so I haven't accurately measured the sag. Eyeballing, it looks to be about 30% but I'll take a proper measurement tomorrow morning before I ride and let you know.

I used the Fox iRD iPhone app to set up the shock and it feels pretty good so I haven't accurately measured the sag. Eyeballing, it looks to be about 30% but I'll take a proper measurement tomorrow morning before I ride and let you know.